2006 Afghan civilian deaths top 1,000: HRW

More than 1,000 of the 4,400 Afghans who died in conflict-related violence in 2006 were civilians, Human Rights Watch says in a new report.

An excerpt from the BBC story:

It says that the majority of the dead were killed by the Taleban or other anti-government forces.

It says more than 4,400 Afghans died in "conflict-related violence", twice as many as in 2005 and more than any year since the Taleban were ousted in 2001.

The HRW report says that UN figures show that the conflict also displaced around 15,000 families - around 80,000 people - in southern Afghanistan.

"The international security effort in Afghanistan has been hobbled by insufficient resources and the failure to effectively address the security concerns of the Afghan population," the report said.

"Taking into account Afghanistan's population and size, the 40,000 Nato and US-led coalition forces in the country are a small fraction of the security forces deployed in other recent post-conflict areas like the Balkans and East Timor.

"Many are limited by national laws to safe areas in Afghanistan or cannot act to protect ordinary Afghans adequately."

The report says that one year after pledging to improve human rights and basic security, the Afghan government and the international community have not fulfilled their objective.

Here's the HRW report.